First Impression: Hisone to Masotan

Synopsis

Hisone Amakusa is an innocent and straightforward girl who struggles with the fact that she sometimes hurts people unintentionally by her innocent words. She decides, in order to distance herself from people, to join the Air Self-Defense Force. Now she is a Self-Defense Force rookie stationed at the Air Self-Defense Force’s Gifu Base. It is here though, that she discovers “OTF” dragon hidden in the base and ends up being chosen as its pilot. Now she goes through the journey on what it means to be a dragon pilot.

The Good

Hisone is the type of protagonist that is not necessarily new but is interesting in how her contrasting sides was shown in the episode. Usually, with characters who struggle with dealing with people, her more dynamic side tends to be shown for more emotional moments in the series. The same was done here but it was a pleasant surprise how much was packed into the one episode.

By far the best part of the episode, however, was the flying segment with Hisone and the dragon. From the smoothness of the animation to the art of the sky and her in the “driver’s seat” so to speak, It was all just so clean and visually pleasing. Other than this, the schematics on how the dragons are disguised as jets are rather clever and overall the episode sets down a rather solid foundation.

The Bad

While the concept is strong and the layout for the story is strong, there is still one or two cliches to be found with the episode. The most prominent would be Nao as the hotheaded character that doesn’t get along with the protagonist. She’s not a bad character and there is some understanding on her part for her anger, but the whole angry character she’s sporting has been done before. True it can be argued that Hisone is the same with her being the unassuming character with a somewhat surprising quality, but still, the characters can be a tad heavy-handed in personality.

Conclusion

The episode laid out a solid concept, exposition and some lovely art to go with it. So far the flaws that have been shown are shaky at best and the following episodes might debunk it. However, there is still a chance of cliche tropes and heavy-handedness popping up. Basically, the episode has left this writer on the fence for the series. The only sure thing is that it has a great concept and the flying sequence is lovely.

Rating: 6.5/10